


we say that it's a brotherhood

by thatwasanticlimactic



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Character Study, Everyone Needs A Hug, Fluff and Angst, I also underappreciate Aang, I forgot how sad some of them were, I love Aang (Avatar), I love Jet (Avatar), I love Kanna (Avatar), I love Piandao (Avatar), I love Suki (Avatar), I love Ty Lee (Avatar), I love Yue (Avatar), Implied/Referenced Character Death, It's kind of sad, almost like a memoir of recollections from characters we don't see a lot of fan content for, appreciating underappreciated characters and their struggles, kind of poetry? but also like a ficlet?, like... all of these people were KIDS during the war at some point, wait it's kind of mostly angst, yes including Aang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:06:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28121352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatwasanticlimactic/pseuds/thatwasanticlimactic
Summary: "we say that's it's a brotherhood but we're all full of shitit's you or me, my work or yours, much more than we admit"- United in Distaste (Starry)a collection of ficlets / character studies on characters that I feel I need to pay more attention to and that I feel are underrated, all centered around the idea of "brotherhood" and what it means to everyone.Jet, Yue, Suki, Piandao, Ty Lee, Kanna, and Aang.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 6





	we say that it's a brotherhood

**Author's Note:**

> I have literally never written for Kanna or Piandao before, so please forgive me if it's a mess. I wanted to step out of my writing comfort zone and write for characters I don't feel too confident writing for (so, no Sokka. or Katara. or Zuko... etc...). If anyone has any suggestions on writing for Kanna or Piandao (specifically, but any of them really), feel free to let me know! I would love to hear headcanons or personal thoughts:)

_Jet_

They say that it’s a brotherhood, but it has never proven to be true.

First, the Fire Nation kills and destroys.

(the scent of burning flesh and the sound of the screams of agony would never leave his head)

Second, needing to find someone else who had been hurt by the same people.

(band together, strong and versatile in skill and heart)

Third, meeting more and more people, doing his best to preserve everything around him.

(only to watch as everything around him decayed

Chipping away due to his own hands-- his own hook)

Fourth, watching wistfully as half of his found family leaves him.

(only two remain and he thinks that maybe they were never a family after all)

Fifth, letting someone in once more.

(because this is the one, this is the time that someone understands)

Sixth, watching as the flames arrive from not a stove but a hand.

(watching the embers rise and fall and the room around him grew warmer and warmer)

Seventh, fall back to all those years ago.

(he vividly remembers the echoes of his pleading mother, the crack of the wood as houses crashed to the ground.

Of the yells of soldiers ordering death upon death upon death)

Eighth, fighting the enemy.

(because that’s all he lives for)

(there is nothing that isn’t an enemy, he learned.

Everyone leaves you and those who fight back lose)

Ninth, wondering if the end result was truly inevitable, if this is why he never died before.

(even in his lapse of memory, he could still feel the heat from the never ending inferno

The triumphant hollers of the pyrolatries condemning the innocent)

Tenth, discovering that even in his last moments, that innocence was never an option, not when innocence and purity are simply myths.

(it wasn’t real and no one bothered telling the children.

So they believed.

And they believed in a brotherhood that never existed in the first place)

Death by villain, surrounded by villains seemed about right in a world where everyone was a villain.

* * *

_Yue_

They say that it’s a brotherhood, and she always believed in it.

From her fall to her resurrection, she believed.

Because believing was all they had in a world where a single flame could melt the streets.

Trapped in a castle of fear and boys pretending to be men and there was no escape.

If there was no true brotherhood, then how could she speak to the Moon and the Ocean?

How could she feel and understand Tui and La when seldom few could?

But the scent of death and loss remained persistent in a way that only a hate driven force could.

And she never wanted to hate, not when there was so much to love.

Outside her window she could see other windows.

A whole world hidden behind glass.

When people thought no one was around, she was; learning and cherishing.

The reflection of the stars resting in the night sky upon the bridge could halt the most powerful spells.

And it was those nights, where the stars shone the brightest, that she wondered what it took to become a star, to become a constellation.

An array of stars in the sky, each the soul of a human being, enticed her, drove her.

She wanted nothing more than to be apart, to experience the synergy, the kind that she had witnessed halt the powerful spells of hatred and envy, of disgust and fear.

Then a boy.

Rich blue eyes, skin peppered with its own little stars, and a smile so large she felt it was peeling off and urging others to smile as well.

The embodiment of joy.

A girl similar, her presence that of the ocean, and the saviour of the world, a family of three.

Then snow as black as the hearts which formed it fell.

Falling, falling, falling…

Gently, a signal, a warning.

She watched as the smile lost the battle on the boy’s face, an open-mouthed expression of fear remaining, winning.

Hopelessness brought melted streets, melted communities.

And her heart, it was splitting in more than two, cracking and shattering.

Tui and La, stricken, the pungent smell of death rising and consuming.

A promise she made long ago, resurfacing now, a sacrifice.

It was necessary, but a sacrifice all the same.

For the longest time, she wondered when this day would come, so nothing but a steady feeling of duty overcame her.

As she knew she would become a star, another constellation in the sky.

Another reflection of everything she strived to be, strived to see in others.

But she wasn’t a star.

It took her longer than she cared to admit that she was never destined to be a star.

She figured even the Moon was never alone for it was surrounded by stars.

But the stars do not speak to the Moon.

Lonely, it was, disconnecting from her body and living the life she was never meant to.

Watching the world carry on as if she were merely a shadow trapped by daylight.

They said that it’s a brotherhood, so then why did she have to be left alone?

* * *

_Suki_

They say that it’s a brotherhood when that’s all you’ve ever known.

Living on the same dirt and breathing in the same air.

A whole life dedicated to honoring the legend that they never got to know.

A hero, a woman, standing so proud and tall, her body and mind encased in stone.

The hero’s breaths were nothing more than a gust of wind.

But she knew with every whisper of wind that blew past her that it was the hero.

A life spent living under the same roof, training under the same roof…

A life spent training.

And training.

_And training._

Separated and hidden away, sometimes she wondered why she ever trained.

Caught in the middle of a war they never wanted in the first place.

The first time one of them died, it was by sickness.

One moment they were a full body, working and moving as one.

The next, they were missing a limb and found that they could not stand without it.

Without _her._

And they were told that was the price they paid, remaining so close to one another, never straying from the pack.

It’s not like it was their fault they were all each other had.

It was just them and the hero encased in stone.

An air of hope, a stream of change, a face painted in respect.

The hero that understood.

The unbearable heat of the hero’s village burning down made her sweat, and she remembered crying as the makeup melted away, dripping down her face and leaving a trail of white down her neck.

A position, separation from all she’s ever known.

Everything left of her and her body and her hero comes only from the mind.

Sometimes she felt as if her body would not function.

A mission, reuniting, three monsters disguised as girls taking her away, away from those she just got back.

The rays of the sun were deadly, feasting on her flesh and lingering in her brain.

Her uniform stolen, clad in the color of the blood that was never shed.

Labour upon scuffle upon guards who she did not consider people.

With the way they acted, they were nothing more than feeble beasts.

The face painted in respect and the hands that burned her life's salvation came for her.

And only then were two more of her limbs able to function without thought.

A father and a prisoner, though wasn’t everyone a prisoner now?

Still?

Another moment of reuniting made her wonder how many more she would have.

How many more before she was done losing her limbs?

She knew more about brotherhood than nearly anyone else.

But no one ever taught her the consequences of losing it.

* * *

_Piando_

They say that it’s a brotherhood, but what meaning does a brotherhood hold when no one knows the intention of every brother?

A nation he was never meant to live in.

A birth in a place it never should have happened in.

That is what he ~~felt~~ knew.

He was never destined to breathe Fire Nation air or walk upon Fire Nation land, travel through Fire Nation sea.

When he thought about it, wasn’t even the Fire Nation a complication of everything it vowed not to be?

A system risen upon the erosion and superiority of an individuality that never existed?

If anything, it is what he became.

A disgrace, a man who was known as the one who could not control the flame.

An identity forged from the same flames as those who ignited a battle that never should have happened.

This flame was stronger, though, for it came from the hands of compassion and mercy.

Sparked by a thought of civil unrest that could never be said aloud.

A blade was created, a blade of truth and honour that only few possessed.

Though it was foretold that those who possessed it were conscious of what air they breathed and what land they walked upon, what waters they travelled through and what spark caused the fire.

He knew a breath once, from stories and memories that were never his.

He knew land, crooked and uneven, but a land that possessed the strength so many lacked.

He knew a body of water, disillusioned in many ways but held firm in the truth.

He knew a flame, a type of flame that he could never have, nor did he want. A flame that understood control and understood that he was never meant to have lived in the Fire Nation as well.

He knew of a dragon, one that many cowered before long ago, but a dragon always sheds it’s scales and that’s when one could see what was truly underneath the hard shell.

He knew of himself, the tip of a sword swift and persistent through the thickest of Earth and the hottest of fire.

He knew of a water that was born without the elements, the atoms misshaped and contorting to become a body without liquid, without the power.

He knew of a boy without water that became the tip of a sword, that became the paint of a mask, the mark of the invention, but above all the pointed end of the spear.

He knew of persistence and bravery, a kind rarely seen.

And he knew of a tile, proud and pristine.

To be shared with those that possessed the truth and possessed the honour.

So he passed it along to the Avatar of his own kind.

And he sat and waited, forged and waited, kept his ears open as he waited and waited.

Any opportunity to leave the nation he never should have lived in.

To face the one he never called Lord.

It was a game of waiting, a lonely game.

One where he could never sharpen the tip of the sword in the way the world needed.

A game of lying in wait.

Of knowing that a brotherhood is fragile and hoping the bonds don’t come loose.

He knew of a time when they did fall, he watched it every day as another and another neighbor and friend and brother became corrupted by a war they were never meant to be a part of.

* * *

_Ty Lee_

They say that it’s a brotherhood, but brotherhood was a promise she could not keep.

A life of acting out to be seen, of learning strange new tricks to be praised.

It kept her on her toes.

She was always the one who begged everyone to stop fighting.

She was always the one who found serenity in others.

A connection between auras that only she could see.

So, she had always assumed that everything would remain as one, as the way it was.

That they would always be a team of four, one coherent unit.

Suddenly, one vanished, leaving behind a broken heart and few words.

Then a second vanished, turning back at the last second to do something considered evil.

But she was the third to vanish, to melt into the boiling pot of insubordination.

A few quick jabs and a fall.

Watching helpless as her sister fell from dignity and grace.

A deep sense of betrayal harbored inside of her, never wavering.

Even as she was dragged away and left to rot.

Even when the war ended and she was set free.

Bound to a new identity of painted faces and fans.

Guilt consumed her for she had always been the one who believed in brotherhood.

She was always the one who fought for it.

But instead of protecting what she once loved, she left it.

And now it was rotting away in it’s own mind.

With nothing left but the dreams of what they could have had.

All because she let go of the promise she once made.

And left her brother all alone with the burning memories that could never be.

* * *

_Kanna_

They say that it’s a brotherhood, but how can it be when you’re all alone?

All she’s ever known was war.

Her whole life had been overtaken by worry and her gut instincts of survival and protection.

Family lost to the fight, nations destroyed.

The Southern Water Tribe was a beautiful place, once.

When there were people, when souls were full of life and she didn’t have to try to find beauty.

Waterbenders were common, half of the village could bend.

It didn’t last long.

There is no such thing as childhood when you grow up in war.

There is only that short stage of living in an ignorant bliss before seeing the dead body of someone you love or watching wistfully as homes were destroyed.

First Kya was slaughtered, in their own home, no less.

Then Hakoda left.

And as much as it pained her to let them go, Sokka and Katara had to leave as well.

Their destiny was not to stay.

The end of the war was not really an end, not in her mind.

What is life when everyone you grew up with are gone?

Living in a war does not go away, not when it is all you’ve ever known.

The end did not mean she could tune out the howls of agony or put an end to the nightmares that tormented her sleep.

There was no end to the war when you were her age, not really.

Trying to see the nation of endless death and destruction as a nation full of people seemed impossible.

Although the snow never fell black again, she still felt pain in her heart whenever a Fire Nation ship pulled up to their tribe.

Along with age came passing, and soon she was the oldest person still alive in their village.

Empty promises from years ago flooded back to her.

Promises of survival and friendship.

They were never fulfilled.

There is no end to a war that you were thrust in from the moment you were born.

Not when your entire life revolved around trying to stay alive.

Not when everyone you knew before were no more.

Not when you were the only brother left standing.

* * *

_Aang_

They say that it’s a brotherhood.

From his first memory, he remembered being one with not only the elements and spirits, but with the souls of those around him.

It was never one for all, it was always together, working as a unit.

The pinnacle of synergy, that's what they believed in.

They say that it’s a brotherhood when you are like everyone else.

But he wasn’t like everyone else.

And it wasn’t _fair._

Vividly, he remembered the storm.

No, the first storm he was trapped in, the one that separated him from his family.

The first stage was glory.

The next envy (because all of the other kids thought the glory was worth the strain).

Then loneliness.

And pressure.

Pressure.

_Pressure._

Crushing, it weighed him down.

Then came the second wave of the storm, literally.

Chilling water cascaded over him, forceful and crude.

Then he slept.

And when he woke, he found the ashes and bones of his brothers decaying.

Twice lost.

Once regained.

Through siblings, he found companionship.

Through a group of warriors.

An immortalized princess.

A child, like him.

A boy who knows loss just the same.

They say that it’s a brotherhood, once lost, once gained.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! This was fun to write. Hard to write, but overall it was fun!
> 
> my tumblr is that-was-anticlimactic if anyone wants to talk atla, lok, Ninjago, The Hollow, Kipo, She-Ra, Dragon Prince, Miraculous Ladybug, mlp... etc... (why did I feel the need to list them all lol?)
> 
> Hope y'all have a great day!


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